Three days after the death of his father, Ettore Lattanzio will honour the man who was like a best friend to him — by playing football.

When the 25-year-old defensive lineman suits up for the Ottawa Redblacks on Saturday in Winnipeg, his heart will be full with thoughts of Rosario, his dad, who died Wednesday after 13 rounds of chemotherapy in a courageous 14-month battle after being diagnosed with stomach cancer.

Ettore, who didn’t practise Wednesday or Thursday, talked to Redblacks coach Rick Campbell and said he wanted to play against the Blue Bombers — a win could lock up first place in the CFL East division race if the Hamilton Tiger-Cats lose on Friday.

Said Ettore: “(A couple of days ago), my mom was speaking to somebody (at the hospital) and said, There’s no way (Ettore) will play, he won’t go to Winnipeg.’ My dad heard, he responded with a: ‘What? He’s going.’ He definitely would have wanted me to go, especially because it’s against the team that drafted me and cut me. I don’t want to be home for the next few days twiddling my thumbs.

“It’s for me and it’s for my father. For me, it’s to honour him. His thing was always, ‘Stay focused, stay focused.’ He didn’t want our lives to stop because of his ordeal. The Redblacks are my extended family. I’m very close to a lot of people there, they’ve shown me a lot of love through this.”

Rosario, who would have turned 56 on Nov. 16, aimed to be like Rocky Balboa, who wanted to go the distance — 15 rounds — against Apollo Creed in the movie Rocky. In Rosario’s case, it was about going 15 rounds of chemotherapy. Last September, after being told he had three months to live, Rosario made a promise to his wife Stella, Ettore and daughters Sonia and Tessia that he wouldn’t quit. He fought like hell to live, plowing through complications. Early this year, he had a blood clot in his aorta which broke off and started to shut down his lower organs. He should have died then.

“He didn’t get to the 15th round, but he fought so hard, he fought to the very end,” said Ettore. “He gave everything. He beat the odds. He had so much strength in him and a very strong will. He takes after his mother’s side of the family; they’re very tough people. I’m amazed at how he was able to cope with it and maintain a positive outlook on everything.”

On Tuesday, despite deteriorating health, Rosario, as per his wishes, was sent home from the hospital.

“We found out last week there was no more they could do,” said Ettore. “The last round of chemo really knocked him out, it was very hard on him. The doctor said, ‘We can’t give him anything else or it will kill him.’ There was good news, though. They said the cancer was dormant, he could go maybe a couple of weeks, a couple of months, six months …

“We thought, ‘Maybe, we’ll have a couple of weeks with him.’ Sunday, he was still very alert, very cognizant. Monday night, my sister called my mother and said, ‘Dad seems to be really off, he’s kind of in and out of consciousness.’ We figured, ‘He’s on morphine and he’s just tired.’ It progressed further Tuesday morning. When they brought him home (later Tuesday), it was downhill right away. He had a few moments where he had consciousness and lucidness, then he slipped into a deep sleep. His mouth stayed open the whole time … he was breathing, it was like a very loud, moaning kind of breathing. You could hear it through the whole house.”

Rosario, an “old-school Italian” who was a talented artist, woodworker and national-record-setting powerlifter (he bench-pressed 400 lbs five years ago at the age of 51), died on his brother Marco’s birthday.

“It wasn’t like he dropped dead all of a sudden, which would leave you with a lot of questions,” said Ettore. “We knew it was coming and that helped us prepare for it. My father and I were very close, we shared a lot of things with each other. There wasn’t much to be said (at the end). His main thing to me was, ‘Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. All you need to do is be strong for your mom and your sisters. Be there for them.’

“When we found out he had cancer, there was this cloud that came over everyone. It was doom and gloom. Now that he’s passed, there’s no cloud. He’s at rest.”

The family grew up on Young St., not far from Preston. Rosario worked for AMJ Campbell, where he was a commercial salesman for the moving company. He was a good friend, a good husband, a good dad and an honest, hard-working good guy — once, working for a cleaning company, he found a wallet bulging with money and credit cards and turned it in. As big and strong as Rosario was, his heart may have been even bigger.

Said Ettore: “When somebody passes, people always say, ‘Oh, he had such a big heart.’ If you talk to anyone who knew my father, they would tell you he would give you the shirt off his back.”

Funeral details for next week have not yet been announced.

On Saturday, Ettore Lattanzio will try to find comfort on a football field.

“You just have to go out there, play 100 miles an hour and the rest will just solve itself,” he said. “It’s the best way I can honour my father. I have to do it, I want to do it.”

A father. A son. A bond that can never be broken — in life and in death.

“It’s still surreal,” said Ettore. “He was the first guy who coached me in terms of training and preparing myself to play football. If he died at 80 or if he died at 55, he taught me a lot of life lessons. I’m prepared to be a man without him by my side, but he’ll be around in his own way. I’m definitely my father’s son. People who know my father say I’m just like my dad.”

“It’s not flesh and blood, but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.”

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